


Kind of like Freedom

by attackfish



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 2: Earth (Avatar), Earth Kingdom, Gen, Iroh dies instead of Lu Ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27492322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attackfish/pseuds/attackfish
Summary: Lu Ten finds himself on the run with his cousin in the very land he once tried to conquer.
Relationships: Lu Ten & Zuko
Comments: 12
Kudos: 172





	Kind of like Freedom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NebulaTrashPaladins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulaTrashPaladins/gifts).



> Takes place in the same universe as: [[Link]](https://attackfish.tumblr.com/post/158282454624/so-someone-messaged-avatarparallels-something-to) and [[Link]](https://attackfish.tumblr.com/post/180528687760/au-5-hc-iroh-is-the-one-who-dies-instead-of-lu).

There was no reason for Lu Ten to cut his hair. Nothing had changed really. He had known for six years his uncle wanted him dead. He wrapped an arm around Zuko's shoulders, a small comfort to to his cousin, whose eyes were glued to the clump of black hair and bright red silk that had been his phoenix tail, unraveling in the water as the stream washed it away.

A small comfort, but still some comfort. Maybe. He hoped.

Zuko shoved his arm away without looking at him. The arm fell back to Lu Ten's side, limp and helpless.

o0O0o

He wrapped his hair in a thick strip of green fabric, similar to, tantalizingly close to, a Fire Nation topknot. But not a Fire Nation topknot. An Earth Kingdom topknot, larger and rounder, heavier, with all his hair gathered together, instead of let free to spill over his shoulders. His face felt strange, his sideburns lying on the ground beside him. He heard his cousin stomping out of the woods. He turned around with a smile. "How do I look?"

Before Zuko could roll his eyes, Lu Ten threw a bundle of green clothes at him.

Zuko caught it, glaring. "Where did you get these?"

"Are you asking if I stole them?"

Zuko's glare only deepened.

"Don't worry," Lu ten told him. "There's a temple nearby. I dug them out of the charity box."

Zuko's glare twisted into a grimace of miserable disgust.

"Hey, hey, beggars can't be choosers."

"We're princes of the Fire Nation," Zuko shot back indignantly. "We shouldn't have to be beggars."

"Pretty sure most beggars think they shouldn't have to be beggars." Lu Ten sighed heavily. "Come over here. Let me neaten up your hair." He paused, and then continued slyly, "You look like a beggar."

o0O0o

"Did you break into a theater?"

Zuko pushed the mask up onto the top of his head to reveal his face, pale and sweaty, and ringed all around in black cloth. He blended in with the darkness so well it seemed the only part of hom that existed was that face. "What?"

Lu Ten put his head in his hand and wiped it across his face as if he were trying to wipe away what he was seeing. "You did, didn't you? You broke into a theater and stole stage hand blacks and a Blue Spirit mask. You are such a child!"

"That's not all I stole," Zuko announced with the bluster of a boy desperate not to be called a child again. He set the sack he had been carrying down onto the charity box blanket that marked their little corner of the street. As the mouth of it flopped open, Lu Ten could see his face in the gleaming gold, dirty and tired. He looked like an Earth Kingdom peasant. Not like someone who should touch things as fine as these. Not like a Fire Nation prince.

But that was the whole idea, wasn't it?

They looked unreal and wrong in the darkness, on their shabby little blanket. Lu Ten quickly tied the sack closed to hide them from view. "Weren't you the one who was all worried that I had stolen our clothes?"

"That's different," Zuko snapped. "You would have gotten caught."

"Okay, then, oh master of criminality, does your expertise extend to knowing how to find a fence for any of this?"

Zuko's lack of reply was answer enough.

Lu Ten heaved a sigh and did his best not to grimace. He untied the sack and tugged it back open. "Okay, let's see what you got."

o0O0o

They took turns taking the reins of the cantankerous ostrich-horse Lu Ten had managed to buy. They both preferred that to riding behind, with nothing to do but hold on. Lu Ten limed it because it distracted him from the way the Earth Kingdom topknot felt strange on his head, the way the Earth Kingdom clothes felt strange on his body. They cast a sense of unreality over everything, as if he wasn't a person, but only a dressed up doll, like one of the dolls Azula used to love when she was little, when she would line them up on her bed, like soldiers going into battle, and lecture them on how they were going to serve the Firelord, the nation, and her. He used to watch and try not to laugh at her, and ruffle her hair.

He didn't know why Zuko preferred to have the reins. Maybe he just liked the control.

"Not sure how this is any better than a prison cell back home," Zuko muttered balefully behind him.

Zuko didn't really mean that, and Lu Ten knew it. "Not that either of us would ever make it to a cell."

The hand wrapped around his waist went rigid. "What?"

"Azula was aiming lightning at you on her barge." Lu Ten kept his voice even, even though the words tried to escape as a scream. He had so much practice holding in screams. "The only reason she didn't kill you there and then is that I knocked her to the deck."

"I'm her brother!"

"I don't think that means much in our family."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko demanded suspiciously.

Lu Ten swallowed. The ostrich-horse squawked and jerked against the reins. He patted her neck and cooed, feeling her shudder and settle under his fingertips. "That's a good girl."

"What did you mean," Zuko asked again, accusation in his voice. "By that?"

Lu Ten didn't look at him. He kept his eyes on the dusty road. "Your dad killed my dad. They're brothers."

"Uncle Iroh died in battle," Zuko told him.

"We were drugged. Both of us. Uncle Ozai sent someone to make sure we died in battle. Nice and tidy. But I survived, and he couldn't kill me without raising questions." Lu Ten just felt tired. So tired. "But he's declared us both traitors now, so he's got his chance to kill us both."


End file.
